My PayPal account is staying locked.

I've actually had good luck chatting with someone through their live support in the past (that was 5 years ago) I imagine it's much worse now.

I've had nothing but painful experiences with paypal, both as a buyer and a merchant. I wish there was a better solution.

Hi Jason,
Thank you for taking the time to respond. Unfortunately I think your response highlights the basic reasons I'm no longer going to be a customer of Paypal.

You've made it sound like I've done something wrong, and that I need to contact you. When my bank account (USAA, love them.) puts a hold on my account they don't assume I've done something wrong or that I need protection from myself. I'm tired of being punished by a service I'm paying for.

Some companies do get this right. I was in Vegas and had withdrawn multiple small amounts of money from ATMs around town. Before I even knew my account had been put on hold USAA called me. They let me know that they had noticed some unusual activity and they wanted to check that my debit card was still in my possession. I told them I was in Vegas for a birthday party and the hold was lifted in matter of minutes. I felt like they were on my side; everytime I interact with them I think "USAA has got my back".

I do appreciate you taking the time to contact me here on Get Satisfaction, really I do. I'm sad that you probably can't change the attitude of your company, and you're probably stuck feeding us the same scripted responses no matter the circumstances. Even more unfortunate than that, I bet you don't have any power to change how PayPal operates. I bet you're smart and your front line position means you *know* where the pain points are and how the service could be better.

Thanks for trying though, don't give up the fight.

My account was locked long time ago and complaining to paypal just won't help.
Some email replies tells me that my account already got enough information for their
verification and then another ask to provide copy of my passport (yes a scanned
image of my passport ! ). The last one ask to make a international phone call, wait for 5 minutes to be attended, talked with 3 different staff and again asking for a copy of my passport. They really !@#$ up their mind. In my case will NEVER use anything that requires Paypal.

I cannot find a way to cancel an unused open account. It keeps interfering with the use of my VISA card with any merchant with PayPal affiliation. Please help me to remove myself from any PayPal association. I wish I had not ever applied for anything related to opening even an unused, inactive account. SOMEONE HELP ME

I was selling NFL jerseys on eBay and all went great for about 2 months. All buyers were happy and I received many positive feedbacks. My PayPal account was verified with my bank and I even was able to transfer smaller amounts to it. However I made a mistake that I had no idea about. When the time came to pay my bills (mostly supplier I had a credit with) the exchange rate was favorable to me, so I initiated a transfer of larger amount to my bank account. Within a day or two I found myself under attack from PayPal who locked my accounts, cancelled the transfer I ordered, and asked me for ID, address verification as well as proof of stock of items I was selling... Once I faxed those documents, they sent me a form-email denying re-opening my account and asking for more papers, I sent them what they asked for again... and a few days later I got the same form email from another employee denying access to my money and asking again for the same stuff as before. In the meantime people kept ordering on eBay and paying by PayPal and PayPal accepted all payments into the locked account. I was sure that PayPal wants to steal all my money, so I did not want to expose myself into even deeper debt to my suppliers, therefore I kept refunding all new orders along with a short note of explanation (PayPal limits the length of message you can send with refund). So in addition to my 2-months work I also lost many sales, as people didn't want to pay in other ways. Initial attack was followed by eBay a few days later, which also locked my account and accused me of fraud. (Until they locked my account I had about 50 feedbacks 100% positive and many more on the way) I am thinking to take this matter to small claims court but I need to do more research on the procedure. Until this event I trusted PayPal completely (like millions of other people) but now I completely lost this trust. They are so horrible, heartless and uncaring. They ruined Christmas for my children, and caused me almost a nervous breakdown with many sleepless nights. I never hate anyone, but can say I am disgusted with them and their horrible behavior.

Good decision. Trust me it's not worth the pain of taking a week or longer to unlock your account. Google Checkout or someone else needs to step up.

I can't get anyone to talk to, just a stupid robot in a voicemail jail. Am trying to work out how to sue. Customer service is unhelpful, useless and patronizing. Wish I'd never started with them.

It seems PayPal is still freezing accounts for false reasons, just to keep the funds in their accounts for 180 days so they can keep the interest generated by doing so. My account is fairly new but was frozen when I attempted to withdraw most of the funds from it. They always have some excuse. They are headed to another class action again as I am not playing their 180 day game.

I highly suggest everyone take a look at this site:

http://www.aboutpaypal.org

Take note of the lawsuit section in the footer of the main page and the information in the forum.

My account has been permanently locked as well and for absolutely no reason.I haven't used Paypla in a few years and now I need to,but I get nowhere with calling them(I can't seem to get a live person on the phone) and my emails have been ignored.I have no funds in my paypal account and again,there is no reason why my account should be locked.They need to unlock it today.

Well, sorry but as usual Jasons responses are in line with the Paypal automated response. I ma in the same situation, limited account and cannot withdraw my money. I have sent them ID, a phone receipt, proof that the items I sold have been delivered and still they will not unlock my account because they want more information. For example I had some auctions going, they closed them and now PP wants receipts to prove ownership of those items...who the hell do they think they are?

In the end, here is the solution, submit complaints to the FBI internet fraud division, the Federal trade commission, your representative and senatro as well as the representative and senator for California, Nebraska, Texas and Colorado, wehere they have offices. If enough of us complain, something is bound to happen, after all a company that has millions of complaints has to be doing something wrong!

On March 12 2009, just after receiving notification of instant payment, PayPal sent me notification of “partially restricted” account pending verification of my ID.
In Australia (where I reside) to open a bank account one must present at the bank documents like Passport, Driving Licence, Birth Certificate and so on, which obviously I did.
To open PayPal account and to become a “Verified” user one must provide PayPal with bank account and credit cards’ details, which I did too, so one could assume that no further ID verification would be required; wrong, PayPal can apparently do to you whatever they want and to your money too.
On 12 March 2009, I had in my PayPal account some $1,200, well no more; today, with me not being able to access the money, there is only $980 left or so.
Furthermore, eBay who owns PayPal, pesters me for a $100.71 payment of my monthly eBay fee (for selling), I refuse to pay because there was an automatic payment arrangement that PayPal/eBay neglected when they froze my account, so today this $100.71 looks more like $107.50 (Interest on unpaid fees). The paradox in here is that they hold my original $1,200 in “my” PayPal account, demand from me $107.50, still having my authorization for automatic payment, and each of my nominated bank accounts is more than able to cover the fees.
Now, to “unlock” my PayPal account they request me to send them copy of my Passport and this I REFUSE to do; what do you need to be able to purchase a SIM card for a mobile phone? You need a Passport. What today’s terrorists use for exploding bombs? They use mobile phones fitted with SIM cards purchased with stolen Identities, so, what guarantee do I have that my Passport would not be misused or compromised???? The answer is NONE; some three weeks after I sent my first letter to PayPay when making attempt to resolve the matter, they responded, that the fax number provided in their web site was MISS PRINTED! Whose fax number was it then? In whose hands a copy of my passport would have had fallen should I sheepishly follow their request?
I presented this matter to Australian Federal Police, no help there; I contacted the Privacy Commissioner’s office and the Attorney General’s office no help over there either. I also instigated VCAT* case against them; 20 hours before the hearing VCAT notified me that on request of PayPal the tribunal agreed to a telephone hearing and simultaneously adjourned the hearing to a later (to be fixed) date.
My conclusions:
• Government bodies DO NOT care about a citizen, they only care for the tax money we, as their milking cows can generate for the, and
• There is little justice available to defend ourselves, and
• Do not EVER use neither eBay nor PayPal; you will burn your hands with a 3 degree burns.
VCAT – Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal with powers similar to a Supreme Court, only High Court can overrule its decisions, you do not need a lawyer there, you can present your case in person.
Wishing you all the best,
Wojtek M